Much of the blame for this loss goes to quarterback Gary Nova. I don't think I've ever seen a quarterback throw 6 interceptions and not get pulled before, but there's a first time for everything. He made mistakes through out the day, but it's not like one thing did him in. He was fooled by some coverages, made some poor decisions, and had a fluky one on a screen pass, so it was just a shitty day for him, it's not like he has some fundamental flaw. I thought Kyle Flood should have pulled him in favor of Chas Dodd late in the first half, but Nova then responded with a TD drive. How he wasn't pulled in the 4th quarter though is beyond me. Nova is the QB going forward, but he did not give Rutgers their best chance of winning on Saturday. I'm not advocating benching Nova going forward, but man, how could you leave him in there? Maybe Flood didn't want to shatter his confidence? Maybe he doesn't want him looking over his shoulder every time he makes a mistake? Who knows.
Nova played poorly, but the offensive line didn't exactly do a great job protecting him. He was eluding pressure all day, and I think he was sacked once or twice (I have no desire to go through the game log or look at stats). I think Kent State was blitzing a lot (have no desire to watch the replay), and they did a poor job picking it up. They did a pretty good job run blocking, but when you fall behind by a lot, you have to abandon the run game. Jawan Jamison had a few nice runs, a bunch of catches out of the backfield, and a touch down, but it wasn't enough.The receivers overall had mixed day as Quoron Pratt lost a fumble on a big gain, and some of the other guys dropped passes. Tim Wright did catch a touchdown, however, as did Brandon Coleman. Miles Shuler made a few nice catches, it was nice seeing him finally get involved, but again, that wasn't enough to overcome all the turnovers.
The defense was put in bad position all day, but they didn't exactly step up with a bunch of big stops. They forced two turnovers and did a solid job containing the dangerous Dri Archer, but the big back Durham ran all over them up the middle. It looked like they were really missing Ike Holmes. The front 7 played pretty bad against the interior runs, but some credit has to go to Kent State's offensive line. They were fantastic. They got Durham to cough the ball up a few times and made a few big stops against the run on third down, but it was a very poor day overall, especially for one of the top run defenses in the nation.
The defensive backs were one of the lone bright spots on the day. Kent State's passing game was non existent, and Logan Ryan and Lorenzo Waters made a bunch of stops against the run when The Golden Flashes ran outside. Another bright spot was Darius Hamilton. The freshman is getting more playing time as the season progresses, and he's stepping up and making plays.
The defense was probably on the field too long, as a result of the turnovers, so it's possible they were just fatigued. That's not good, but I fully expect this senior laden group to pick up the pieces after this one and return to their dominate form the rest of the season.
Lorenzo Waters blocked a field goal, and Nick Delouisa did a great job kicking away from Archer. Archer ended up with two returns, but the coverage unit did a nice job getting down the field and tackling him. Kyle Federico missed another game, and Borgese made the only field goal he attempted.
This was an awful, forgettable game and it knocked Rutgers out of the top 25 in the BCS standings, but their goals (other than an undefeated season) are still there in front of them. They are still in the drivers seat to win the Big East and go to a BCS game. They head into the bye week with a very bitter taste in their mouths, and they didn't practice Monday and won't on Tuesday thanks to the hurricane, but I fully expect this team to get better, get over this one, lean from it and be fully prepared to beat Army in 11 days.
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